1/9/17

A
short time ago Christopher completed his Simplicity and sent me pictures of his
wonderful build. He
was able to get his Simplicity running on 2.2 pounds (1 kg) of drive weight by
substantially decreasing the internal friction in his clock, and in his email he
describes what methods and materials he used to accomplish that. Getting
a Simplicity to run on such a light drive weight is an impressive accomplishment
and a testament to his high level of craftsmanship. However, in addition, he has some other really exciting information that
he wanted to share with all my builders. Below he describes how he used a free app to get the timing of his
Simplicity into a truly accurate beat.

Thank you for sharing the following information, Christopher. This is a
brilliant re-purposing of the Shot Timer app. Read on to find out how Christopher achieved such accuracy in his wooden
clock...

Christopher
writes...

I wanted to share with you a few things that have helped me keep her (Simplicity) running
smoothly.

First,
everywhere there is brass-on-brass contact I have lubricated with dry
graphite.

Next,
a friend of mine informed me of a Teflon powder that piano repairmen use on
piano keys. I applied a very light dusting to all wood-on-wood contact points.
After a short wear in period the clock runs very smooth, on very little
weight.

Lastly,
while trying to set the clock into perfect beat, I utilized a pistol shooting
timer program that I had installed on my phone. IPSC Shot timer (android) is a
free app, designed for pistol shooters to record shot timing. After setting the
microphone threshold sensitivity very low, it is capable of recording clock
beats. This program is excellent for using on clocks. Turn it on near the clock
and let it run for a moment, paying attention to the 'split time' and result
table. This shows me down to the hundredth of a second each beat of the
clock.

Instead
of letting her run for a few days and making a fine adjustment, I can set her in
near perfect beat within a few minutes.

It
is interesting to see because you can even identify teeth that are slightly
different, by slight discrepancies in the beat times. After marking and sanding
down a few teeth, the clock runs beautifully.